There is life on Mars and it's a godawful small affair, according to this determinedly sombre sci-fi film.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 30, 2021

Above all, what sets this production apart from the rest is its unflinchingly honest and bleak view of the human condition.

| Jul 29, 2021

Settlers isn't perfect: some of the storytelling beats aren't hit as clearly as they could have been. But it's a quietly impressive piece of work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 28, 2021

Cordova has to navigate an incredibly tight channel to bring all of this across, and while he isn't entirely successful, watching him make the attempt is still frequently exhilarating.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 26, 2021

Settlers is so bare in world-building details that its characters float untethered, and a major mid-film reveal seems like a narrative shortcut.

| Jul 24, 2021

Ultimately, though, Settlers is more about setting a mood and painting a picture of hopelessness than explaining what happened before the story...it feels incomplete.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 23, 2021

A somber drag.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 23, 2021

The core question "Settlers" asks is who "deserves" to occupy this inhospitable planet. To Rockefeller's credit, he doesn't offer any pat answers.

| Jul 23, 2021

Rockefeller wisely abandons the fantasy of settling Mars in favor of contemplating the very real complications posed by life on an unestablished, uninhabited planet.

| Jul 22, 2021

Succeeds only in telling a clumsy cautionary tale of homesteading and violence on the planet Mars.

| Jul 22, 2021

Settlers allows for weighty themes to play out inside a cramped domestic setting, wary of easy answers or moral platitudes.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 20, 2021

Prince, in particular, who made such an impact in "The Florida Project," is equally resolute and uningratiating here, and the severity of Remmy's gaze, as she despairs of the adults and stalks off into the wilderness, carries real weight.

| Jul 16, 2021

In the ranks of cinematic journeys to Mars, "Settlers" ranks among the less fancifully and lavishly invented, yet it's all the more effective for its earthly restraint...

| Jun 28, 2021